Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of molecular biology, and more particularly to high-throughput single-cell analysis.
Description of the Related Art
Methods and techniques for flow cytometry are useful in cell analysis, in particular deciphering expression profiles of cell surface proteins to determine the states of cells. Methods and techniques for mRNA sequencing are useful in cell analysis, in particular deciphering gene expression profiles to determine the states of cells using, for example, next generation sequencing (“NGS”). When performed on samples of both cells of interest and cells not of interest, these methods and techniques determine the average states of the cells in the samples. However, cell-to-cell variations can exist among different cells, thus these methods and techniques can have poor signal-to-noise ratios for cells of interest. Also, the gene expression profiles of cells may not be accurate proxies of the protein expression profiles of cells. Thus, there is a need for improved low cost methods of isolating and sequencing single cells, including cells of interest, as well as methods capable of efficiently and effectively combining genomic and proteomic information for cell analysis.